Solar-powered classrooms and a smart wheelchair - Click reports on how Bangladesh tech is transforming lives

Have you heard about Sputnique - a portable, solar-powered multimedia classroom? The super-mobile kit allows Bangladeshi teachers to hold classes anywhere, particularly after natural disasters like flooding or cyclones.

As presenters and producers of the Bangla edition of Click, the BBC’s flagship digital technology programme, we spot digital innovations popping up across Bangladesh.

For example, inventor Reza Ul Kabir and his team created Sniffer, an electronic device that can detect gas leaks and alert residents, and many in Dhaka are showing interest in setting it up in their homes.

We’ve covered improvements in health services through mobile technology, where patients in local and district hospitals receive advice from doctors in specialist facilities based elsewhere, instead of having to travel there.

A group of engineering students looked at how they could improve the wheelchair of a beggar, and ended up creating a smart wheelchair inspired by that of their favourite Hollywood character, X-Men’s Professor X.

Reporting the launch of Bangladesh’s first ever satellite, Bangabandhu-1: Faisal Titumir at Satellite Ground Station Gazipur

Another creation is Delivery Robot, piloted by students in Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, which can serve both medical staff and patients.

E-Village is an invention by a team from the Computer Science and Information Technology Department of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agriculture University. It’s a smart device with sensors that can work with the soil, leaves and seeds and connected to smartphones via an app, telling farmers when and how much to feed planted seeds and the condition of the field.

The device has reduced costs and produced bigger harvests, and has been successfully applied in a village in Gazipur with plans to expand across all Bangladesh.

Our stories of digital innovation in Bangladesh have been featured elsewhere including on BBC News Tamil and the global BBC edition of Click.

We have also worked with the London-based Click team on a report about initiatives from the Bangladeshi Government and an international charity to produce a floating bamboo home that can survive a flood.

Farmers are using the ‘Sesame app’ which combines machine learning with historical knowledge of weather and crop patterns to help them plan ahead.

Bangladesh often makes the headlines for natural and man-made disasters. But with Click we show another side to the country, stories at the cutting edge of technological innovation that improves lives in Bangladesh, Asia, and around the world.